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Last month, multiple prominent right-wing personalities aggressively promoted conspiratorial claims from a purported whistleblower saying ABC News gave Vice President Kamala Harris the debate questions ahead of time and took other actions to help her prevail against former President Donald Trump. The claims were highly suspicious from the start, originating from an obviously questionable source and wrapped in layers of logical inconsistencies — and they’ve continued to crumble under scrutiny.

Anyone who has paid attention to U.S. politics for a nanosecond will not be surprised to learn those who promoted these “whistleblower” claims have either totally ignored that they’ve fallen apart or belatedly acknowledged how ridiculous they were in the first place.

Our overly-online media environment rewards outrage over facts, shock over analysis, and nonsense over logic. Exercising prudence before rushing to chase the next viral claim is more passé than acid-wash jeans. It’s simpler and quicker to process and angrily retweet “ABC News gave Kamala Harris the debate questions ahead of time and agreed not to fact check her!” — who cares if it’s totally baseless? — than “Here’s an in-depth discussion of the debate transcript and why a candidate who lies a lot more should expect to get fact-checked more.”

To recap, the claims went viral after an account called “Black Insurrectionist – I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS” shared an alleged “affidavit” from a “whistleblower”...

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